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Poking around on the web I noticed that most threads regarding 'Green Tide' are dated around 2009. With Necrons, Grey Knights, Dark Eldar, ect.. all out, I can understand a generic Green tide list losing its competitive edge by now, but perhaps a hybrid green tide list of some sort. Thoughts?

In my local gaming circle (the friends I play with every week) a full on green tide list would work and win alot of games and I play against Dark Eldar, Necrons, Tau and Blood Angels. I think it depends on who you're playing against and how they write lists. We've all come up with different lists for different things and each would work, but they all have the weakness of only working, very well, against their target army.

I've been playing Orks for a good while now and everyone new I play against writes a list to combat a green tide. I play Nobz and Kans, with some bikes thrown in for fun. So I win a lot of those games. I think the problem with green tides is that it's a common Ork build, at least in my city, so people just build to beat it and do. It may be differnt in other areas, I don't know, but whever I go to a GW in another city people assume I'll play a green tide 'cos I play Orks.

Green tide has worked almost every time I've ever ran it. Infact normally it takes armies who have known my make up and tailored their lists to win. (Namely imperial guard gun lines using hell hounds and that basilisk variant designed to remove cover saves.) However i find the most effective way to survive as green tide is with Big Meks pushing cover saves with some walker support to discourage reckless rushes from your enemy.

It really comes down to this. Yeah it has some weaknesses but so very few armies can produce 31 wounds even in multiple rounds of shooting against toughness 4 with a 5+ cover save. Even if they have been able to and you are running Green Tide correctly that was only 1 wiped squad out of at least 3 or 4 more identical squads.

I'd say the major drawback for Green Tide is it's TIME CONSUMING and ANNOYING for blasts, ordinance and template fighters.

As a personal suggestion if you want to run Green Tide make sure you get outflankers like Kommandos or perferably Deff Koptas built with Buzzsaws and TL rokkits, These are used to deal with armies who 'castle" against the orks. (Namely used to kamikaze rush against annoying elements of your enemy's army like tanks or dreadnoughts)

imo green tide is pretty fun and very effective.

at 1490 points if i remember my core list right I have 180 boyz in 6 squads of 30, 6 nobz with bp and pk, along with 2 kff bik meks. at that points lvl its pretty hard to deal with

I fully agree with the above. There is not a game that can not be won by a green tide.

I currently run at 1,500 with Orks. 2 Big Mek with KFF/Klaw, 4 mobz of 27 w/ Nob and Klaw, and 3 squads of 3 Deffkopta all with TL rokkit launchers and each squad has a buzzsaw. They have to deal with the Koptas, and if they are they are not stopping the boyz. Not to mention over 100 boyz is no easy task at 1500. If they can match you (purifiers/blood angels) then you use your tactics.

Totally competitive.

as above.
I run infantry guard (meaning all infantry, all the time) and very few lists really bring the firepower to drop that many models with everyone spamming vehicles and terminators.

The only thing I can really imagine messing up green tide are purifiers, and they should go down to withering loota fire.

For your reference original poster, it's a great starter style for orks cause it involves no real mean orky planning. As this style of list i have rushed tournament winning IG gun lines straight on not caring about causalities which is nearly unheard of for most players. But you have to invest the orky bodies which can cost a pretty penny if just starting out. Still, if you want to learn can't think of a finer way to.

I really enjoyed running a Kann wall green tide army. I used 160-180 shoota boyz and loota's. The only thing that kept me from winning tourneys were I play is kill points. You will give alot of them up. But really who cares lol Alot of MEQ players would laugh at me until I rolled 20+ 4+ coversaves and then launched 360 shots into there face right before I charged! Ya BS 3 sucks but who cares its all about valume of fire at that point.

The problem with running Green Tide at low points is it pretty much all you got. Mech spam lists are going to look at your mobs, and tank shock you in ways to avoid PKs (bunching your nob up so he can't reach combat). Then they are going to use their flamers and kill a unit a turn (if they properly go for refused flanks and concentrate on 1 mob at a time). Or they just keep mobile and bombard your trash as well as they can and play for the mission. 180 boyz take up a bit of space, and most of them spend more time getting caught up on terrain or getting in each other way than anything.

A hybrid of green tide and something else is generally superior than a pure 180 boyz list. Leaves enough room both in points and in the deployment for more effective specialists. At 1500 I would go with 90 or so boyz and about that leaves 800 or so points for other units that can concentrate force better. Hiding your workhorses behind the chaff of boyz is an effective tactic. (or in the case of the kan wall, make people think you are protecting the boyz when its the kans they should be worried about).

As above. The traditional green tide lacks the tools to handle vehicles efficiently, so most people add buggies, kanz and lootaz to do that, resulting in the commonly used kan wall.

By heart, the kan wall is an evolution of the green tide, so if you liked one play style, you will most likely feel at home with the other.

I've been playing the green tide since back when we had the thin green codex (i think it was called 'Ere we go, 'Ere we go), and i can honestly tell you that once you add some kanz or some kind of dedicated assault unit to 120+ boys there isn't much that stands upto it with a good initial deployment.

The green tide is the best thing about orks. I just take it, add an extra thing here and there for flexility and careen into the other guy. I won my first game that way.

what can be taken to add more flexibility to the list? I'm looking at 2 kff meks, 5 x 30 shoota boyz with pk nob, 3 squads of 3 tl rokkit buggies, deff dread, 2 squads of three kans... Needs a little more spice but I'm not getting inspiried by much.

You'll be timed out in most tournaments. Apart from that it is very competitive, if that then makes sense.

Blood Talons are annoying but are not too bad as you can handle the other units in a BA army. Purifiers also can be ok as the other GK units can not supply enough attacks. If you face a crowe list you should give up.
Templates imply the enemy is close so in general I am happy knowing I can charge the flamer unit next turn.

I like a tide with a huge shooting element, this isn't too boring.

Da Green Tide is timeless in its simplicity and effectivness.


The ONLY thing that truly shakes it is Purifier Spam. And then its still anybodies game. Purifiers don't obliterate, they curb.

Are there any steps that speed up the process ?

what do you mean? the force? No not really but move, run , move, waaagh assualt should get you damn close unless they are on the back 18 inches of deployment. If they are then they are asking for wiped fleers and your outflankers should have been able to make an appearance round 2 if not more than likely 3 same time as your boys more or less . If it's round 4 you are just unlucky

The theory is that the green tide is so large and foot printy that the enemy will not have a way to avoid you with movement as you are more or less everywhere.

In short I rarely get to round 3 without hitting many many things in close combat.

Green tide in 5th edition is still decent. You can still get your mobs a 4+ cover save pretty easily, which makes them much more resilient to shooting. You don't need a KFF mek boy to give you cover, just be smart in your deployment. Don't forget you can also congo-line your units, which makes it very easy to give cover.

How can you make a tide work? With the changes in meta, you need to make sure that you bring the correct support now.
* Lootas to crack AV 11 razorback spam.
* Deffkoptas for STR 8 TL rockets to crack AV 12.
* Grots to take the initial hit from DCAs.
* Snikrot to tie up back line firepower (like psydreads or long fangs)
* 2 Warbosses to help deliver some punch. Grazkull may be something to consider also for the 2 turn WAAAGH.

All good points. Not a fan of lootas however but to each their own.

How many coptas in a squad typically?

The Grundel wrote:All good points. Not a fan of lootas however but to each their own.

How many coptas in a squad typically?

The standard is either 5 or 15.
If you go with 5, you have a minimal investment, and they have a decent chance of destroying a rhino. They have a 50% to run off the board after 2 die.

If you go with 15, you have a decent chance to take out AV 12 through volume of fire, and can take down many other targets due to massive shots.
It takes 4 casualties to make you take a break test, which is a weakness with this bigger investment. A smart player will do that pretty quickly.

Both units of lootas are vunerable to tank shock, but thats just and orks life eh?

When I played Orks (old codex at the beginning of 4E) I had a grand old time of green tide, but I got a lot of boys off ebay for dirt cheap. I kinda got sick of it, I had an army that won more than it lost, but the whole thing ran on auto pilot and I got bored with it. I eventually sold it off and bought SoB. I kinda miss it now, but I think I made the right decision.

Bottom line, there are two ways to play orks. Speed Freaks and Horde. You can add all sorts of neat things to Horde, but it is still built on the solid backbone of greentide.

I hadn't considered taking a very small squad I might give 6 a try. I did the whole 1o to 15 in fourth addition and they just did not hold up.

The Grundel wrote:Are there any steps that speed up the process ?

There are special sticks you can buy to help with 2'' and 6'' measurements.

I have seen some clever deployment sort of trays.

The best I have seen is in double tournaments where a team combined two ork armies, between 2 people to move the horde and an expanded FoC they won happily.